Grandma Rodgers

Monday: Rick's grandma had a severe stroke/aneurysm around noon on Monday. They rushed her to the hospital in Wierton OH but then realized that she needed more help than what they could give her, so she was life flighted to Pittsburgh.
Once she got here and the doctors could asses they situation, they decided that it would be best for her to have surgery. They went into her brain and took out the aneurysm and then re-routed the artery that it was in. It was a 4 hour surgery. She came through surgery well. They repaired the brain aneurysm and have given her a 50/50 chance which is much, much better than what had been said earlier in the day - less than 5 % chance of coming through.
She is still in a coma and they are not sure of what the permanent damage will be yet. She is stable and will be in the special ICU for at least 2 weeks if everything goes like the doctors are hoping.

Tuesday update: They had to go in an insert a shunt into her brain to allow the fluid to drain. They also took out a bone flap in her head to allow for swelling in the brain. Rick and I was able to go in and see her for a few minutes. She doesn't look like herself. It is very strange to see her just laying there hooked up to lots of machines.

Wednesday update : They had her down for a CAT scan during normal visitation. She is looking a little better, but she was heavily sedated because she was moving a lot on her left-side and they needed to sedate for the CAT scan. They are also talking about taking the shunt out since the swelling has subsided.

Rick and I started out on Monday like normal - get up, drive to Richmond, I go to my WW meeting and then check in to the hotel and start to unload the car. Rick got a call around 1 saying that his grandma was being rushed to the hospital because Granddad found her passed out on the floor. Pray. By 2:45, I got a call from Rick saying pack up the car - we are driving to Pittsburgh. Another call form my sister-in-law in Charleston asking what clothes do I want to wear to the funeral. It was a God thing cause I wasn't feeling good and I didn't feel like unloading the whole car in 100 degree heat. So when I had to re-pack in a hurry - I only had 3 loads! I was able to pack up, check out, and drive downtown to pick Rick up in 30 minutes! I was a mess until I got to Rick and he was able to tell me more facts about what was going on. We started our 6 hour drive to Pittsburgh and the phone was ringing off the hook. It takes alot of work to get 25 people to one place in a hurry!

We finally made it around 10:30 - after a driving through annoying rain and catching an escaped hamster. We got to the hospital a few minutes before Grandma got out of surgery, so we were there to hear first hand the results. after it was decided that no one needed to stay the entire night(she is in ICU and so no one was allowed back there all the time with her), we headed over to the hotel for the night. it was around midnight and we were all pretty exhausted - physically and especially emotionally. After getting settled in and visiting everybody, we didn't go to bed until 2 am.

Tuesday morning we hung around the hotel and around 1 we headed back to the hospital. Rick and I got to go back and see Grandma for a few minutes. we ate a late lunch and finally made the decision to head back to Richmond. Grandma is still in a critical stage but she is stable and could be like this for 2 weeks. And so we decide that Rick should go back to work and if we need to - we can go back up. We drove the 6 hours back and checked in our hotel at midnight. Rick was able to go into work later than normal which was a huge blessing.

We are now just going to take it on day at a time. As of right now, we don't have plans of going back up over the weekend ,but that could change at any point.

Please keep praying.